What is Celiac Disease?

Celiac disease, also known as gluten intolerance, is a genetic disorder that affects at least 1 in 133 Americans. Symptoms of celiac disease can range from the classic features, such as diarrhea, weight loss, and malnutrition, to latent symptoms such as isolated nutrient deficiencies but no gastrointestinal symptoms. The disease mostly affects people of European (especially Northern European) descent, but recent studies show that it also affects Hispanic, Black and Asian populations as well. Those affected suffer damage to the villi (shortening and villous flattening) in the lamina propria and crypt regions of their intestines when they eat specific food-grain antigens (toxic amino acid sequences) that are found in wheat, rye, and barley. Oats used to be considered toxic to those with celiac disease, however, recent scientific research has shown otherwise.

Does a gluten-free diet have any effect on cardiovascular risk in people with celiac disease? Does it effect people without celiac disease? So far, both questions have remained unanswered.

Recently, a team of researchers set out to conduct a systematic review to shed some light on the matter. The team was led by Michael D.E. Potter, MBBS (Hons), from the University of New Castle, Australia.

The team focused their review on the "potential of the gluten-free diet to affect modifiable cardiovascular risk factors including weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugars,"...

With blazing progress in 3D printing technology, the future of numerous fields from house building to cake-making and, yes, cooking, is literally being written, or printed, before our very eyes.

Food is definitely one of those arenas that will see major influence for 3d printing. In the future, more and more kitchens will come with one of more 3d printers that deliver highly customized food choices for chefs, on demand.

Currently, platform for 3D printing personalized food are being developed for numerous applications, including gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, and other specialized diet markets.

For those of you who haven't yet heard about GliadinX, it is a dietary supplement with the highest concentration of AN-PEP, Prolyl Endopeptidase (Aspergillus Niger), and, unlike other enzymes, these have been shown in studies to break down gluten in the stomach.

I've been using them regularly for months, and I tend to take them whenever I eat out, or eat at a friend's house, so basically whenever I don't have control over my food's preparation. Since I began doing this I haven't had any incidents of upset stomach, which are my typical symptoms if I get any cross contamination. However, it is hard to prove a negative...after all, perhaps I haven't had any issues because all of the food I ate was 100% gluten-free...right?

Addressing concerns from people with celiac disease and/or gluten-intolerance over the presence of corn gluten in their livestock feed, Wiedmeier stressed that "Corn gluten meal is a byproduct of processing corn. There is no true gluten in corn, but simply corn proteins."

Amaranth is naturally gluten-free and usually safe for people with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.

Amaranth is not actually a grain, but is considered a pseudo-cereal like it's cousin, quinoa. Both are part of the same large family that includes beets, chard and spinach.

Amaranth is highly nutritious, and contains about one-third more protein than rice, sorghum, or rye. It also contains high levels of calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, and fiber, together with a nearly perfect amino acid profile.

It's not uncommon for people with celiac disease to have other medical conditions, including liver disease, glossitis, pancreatitis, Down syndrome, and autism.

By the same token, people with one or more of these associated disorders can be at greater risk for having or developing celiac disease. Until recently, though researchers didn't have much good data on the numbers behind those risk levels. A new database study of more than 35 million people changes that.

Pozole, pozole, pozole. Pozole seems to be popular lately. Pozole is a hominy-based Mexican stew closely associated with the Pacific-coast state of Guerrero.

I've noticed a number of references to pozole lately. I've seen articles touting pozole in place of traditional turkey dinner for Thanksgiving, and articles about using leftover Thanksgiving turkey to make pozole.

This tasty recipe calls for chicken, but you can easily substitute turkey, leftover or otherwise. When stewed in chicken broth and other tasty ingredients like tomatillos, green chiles.

Celiac disease is a genetically determined disorder in which affected individuals show an intolerance to ingested gluten (Food Safety Authority of Ireland [FSAI]). It is an inheritable, life-long disease and is characterized by an inflammatory reaction to dietary gluten in the human small intestine. The special feature of the disease is a flattening of intestinal villi along with crypt hypertrophy. As a result, it leads to significant loss of absorptive surface area and resulting malabsorption of nutrients, vitamins and minerals...

Production of gluten free products involves the fulfillment of specific requirements. These products must be free of gluten...

Talk about handling a celiac disease diagnosis in style. This past summer, "Us" star Mandy Moore showed us how its done, when she documented the process of working with her doctor to determine if she had celiac disease.

She even posted a photo of her endoscopy visit for her Instagram followers. Moore captioned the post:

"Grog city. Just had an upper endoscopy to officially see whether or not I have celiac (only way to officially diagnose)…things are looking 👌)."

Wellington's Victoria University is the first institution of its kind in New Zealand to receive a full Celiac accreditation for its residence dining halls.

Under a new partnership between Coeliac NZ and Compass, the company that provides food and support services to the six residence Halls at Victoria, the university achieved gluten-free accreditation through independent auditing company SGS in August 2017.

For centuries, physicians have used cannabis to treat numerous disorders. Modern research shows that various cannabis compounds can alleviate symptoms from numerous conditions, including neurological disorders, cancer, rheumatism, epilepsy, sexual disorders, pain, among others.

Many people with celiac disease suffer from neuropathy, which causes nerve pain, among other symptoms. Neuropathy can be difficult to treat. Nerve pain is a debilitating symptom that can significantly impair a patient's quality of life. Could a new cannabis patch change that?

In a modern take on an ancient herbal remedy, researchers are working to develop a patch made from cannabis compounds that can effectively treat various types of neuropathy, including that associated with celiac disease.

We have long known that gluten intolerance, both celiac disease and gluten sensitivity, are highly associated with neurological symptoms. Migraines, ataxia (unstable gait), seizures, schizophrenia – the list is long. But a recent research study just published last month sheds some new light on exactly what the mechanism may be. Understanding why these debilitating symptoms occur as a result of a gluten intolerance will, hopefully, go a long way toward increased awareness among the lay public and clinicians alike. It is certainly true that too many millions of Americans suffer the effects of a gluten intolerance unknowingly. They only know that they feel unhealthy but have no idea that gluten is the culprit.

Do you have an emergency survival kit at home should disaster strike? Does that include drinking water and gluten-free provisions for at least a few days?

The fallout from the latest string of disasters still looms over parts of America; over Houston, Florida and neighboring states devastated by Hurricanes and by resulting floods; and over northern California communities devastated by wildfires.

That got us thinking about emergency kits. Gluten-Free-free emergency kits, to be precise.

Many theories have been fielded about autism. Some research careers have been made by investigating autism, while other careers have been seriously damaged when that research threatened some sacred cows of allopathic medicine. Yet despite all of this active research exploring the world of autism, we continue to experience exponential increases in rates at which autism is diagnosed. And debate continues unabated regarding the causes and appropriate treatments. Part of this increasing trend is, doubtless, because we have gotten better at recognizing the various manifestations of this debilitating condition. However, the evidence indicates that there is a dramatic increase in the absolute incidence of autism.

Can carpal spasm be an early sign of celiac disease in some cases? Photo: CC--University of Liverpool Faculty Health Life Sciences

Can carpal spasm be an early sign of celiac disease in some cases? A team of physicians recently reported on the case of a 3-year-old Albanian girl who presented at their clinic with carpal spasms and hand paresthesia.

She was suffering from carpal spasms and paresthesias of her extremities.

People who do not have celiac disease, but who have celiac-like symptoms that improve on a gluten-free diet are prime candidates for a condition called non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS).

Researchers don't know much about the condition. There are no biomarkers, so they can't just do a blood test. People with this condition often experience celiac-like symptoms. Many of people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity see their symptoms improve on a gluten-free diet. However, these people may also have puzzling sensitivities to other foods that just don't seem to add up. Interestingly, foods with gluten often contain fructans, a type of fermentable oligo-, di-, monosaccharides and polyols (FODMAPs). Fructan is one such compound. Could fructan be the culprit?